Drosophila Genetics

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been studied extensively for well over a century as a model organism for genetic studies. D. melanogaster offers a similar gene or a homolog for virtually every human gene, often with no redundancy. For example, the human genome may contain two or more similar/almost identical genes, whereas the fruit fly genome may contain only one!  Thus, Drosophila genetics is important because it provides an ideal framework for initial disease modeling studies using large numbers of prospective disease-related genes, which would be impossible to perform in expensive rodent models.

It is estimated that approximately 44 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s disease or other related forms of dementia such as Parkinson's disease, having a negative global economic impact of approximately $605 billion. Current mitigation approaches focus on the maintenance of mental function, management of behavioral symptoms, and slowing down problems such as memory loss—targeted therapies are currently lacking. 

Here at BRITE, we are using Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's disease models of the fruit fly D. melanogaster to screen potentially therapeutic small molecule and natural product treatments prior to moving into preclinical models. Many basic neurological properties are conserved between mammals and D. melanogaster, i.e., nearly 75% of human disease-causing genes have a functional homolog in the fly. Thus, these approaches are likely to be highly relevant to human health and to provide targets/hits before moving forward into preclinical rodent models.